GMS trained rower Ala Piotrowski and her partner Jen Kaido won the Women’s Double Scull (2x) final at the National Speed Orders at Princeton, NJ this past weekend. The victory won them a coveted place on the US National team and makes them eligible to compete at the World Championships in Munich this August. If the duo can meet the pre-set qualifying time when they race in Germany, they will qualify the boat to represent the US at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Ala belongs to OARS, a non-profit organization which supports rowers who are training with the goal of representing the US at the 2008 Olympics. Günter Buetter, Technical Director at GMS Rowing Center, New Milford, is the OARS coach. These rowers will be seen rowing out of GMS on the Housatonic and Lake Lillinonah this summer.

Two additional OARS athletes, Catherine Starr and Amanda Kendrick, came 5th in the Women’s 2x Final, making it 3 out of 12 rowers from the OARS program who made it to the final round of competition.

Race Details

We had a great race. We were nervous going into the Final, of course, because even though we had a 7-second lead on the field at the time trial, last year another boat with a strong finish ended up beating us in the final. I thought they had more speed than they showed there, especially considering how close the other crews were to them. Last year they got out on us off the start and stayed there, just off our bow. We thought that this year if we could avoid that, we could win. At the 500 we had about half a length, and spread it out to just over a length by the thousand, and didn’t gain any more water than that. Based on the brief times we had seen them at Princeton in practice, their sprint was much better than ours, so we weren’t willing to let it come to that. With about 420 meters to go I brought us up to a 36 stroke rate, held it until we crossed into the red buoys, then we worked our sprint up to – I’m told – about a 39.5. I wasn’t looking at that point – I feared any extra motion – even the eyeballs moving in my head – might cause disaster. Do nothing to upset the boat. We won by three seconds.

GMS Rowing Center is located at New Milford, CT and enjoys some of the best rowing water in the Northeast. It offers rowing programs for all ages from high school (Grades 8 through 12), college students to adults. It has programs ranging from learn-to-row through to experienced competitive athletes. This year we helped a number of high school students achieve scholarships to college and look forward to helping more students achieve their ambitions. In addition GMS offers highly regarded personalized training programs. For more details please visit www.gmsrowingcenter.us